Studies dealing with the demographic events of any given period from the early historical up to World War I.
Comprehensive surveys, notes of sources, and items on the state of research. Particularly concerned with the period before modern vital registration was introduced and censuses were taken. Historical items that primarily pertain to one specific demographic variable are classified first under the specific heading and then cross-referenced to this heading.
Applications of demographic methodology to the records of the past. Relevant items are coded here and, if of more general interest than to historical demography alone, are cross-referenced to N. Methods of Research and Analysis Including Models.
63:10583 Hammel, E. A.; Wachter, Kenneth
W. Evaluating the Slavonian census of 1698. Part II: a
microsimulation test and extension of the evidence. European
Journal of Population/Revue Européenne de Démographie,
Vol. 12, No. 4, Dec 1996. 295-326 pp. Dordrecht, Netherlands. In Eng.
with sum. in Fre.
"An adjusted 17th [century] census [for
Slavonia, in modern Croatia] based on critical reading of the
historical text is the basis for indirect estimation of uncounted
persons. The census states no ages and excludes many categories of
household residents. Microsimulation based on historically and
ethnographically plausible rates and household formation scenarios
produces simulated households that match the observable portions of
households in the adjusted census. Microsimulation results permit
estimation of the uncounted population, of the kinship and age
composition of households under extant frontier conditions, and the
probable future composition of households as the frontier stabilized
and land shortage began to exert pressure for greater density and
household complexity."
For Part 1, also published in 1996, see
62:40536.
Correspondence: E. A. Hammel, University of
California, Department of Demography, 2232 Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley,
CA 94720. E-mail: gene@demog.berkeley.edu. Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
63:10584 Rosental, Paul-André.
Thirteen years of thinking: from population history to French
historical demography (1945-1958). [Treize ans de
réflexion: de l'histoire des populations à la
démographie historique française (1945-1958).]
Population, Vol. 51, No. 6, Nov-Dec 1996. 1,211-38 pp. Paris, France.
In Fre. with sum. in Eng; Spa.
"Historical demography did not
appear from out of nowhere. Before its success in 1958, Louis Henry was
already working in a promising field, in which several models
co-existed or competed with one another. During the early post-war
years studies undertaken by historians, demographers, and geographers
were based on various types of past censuses. The idea of
reconstructing statistical series from data in parish registers only
began to catch on and prevail during the nineteen-fifties. The intense
debates centred on periodization provide an illustration of the way in
which this idea evolved. They show that in spite of programmes which
were often promising and logical, Louis Henry's technical rigour would
not by itself have been sufficient to win historians over to his views:
he was successful in imposing this method and thus gave an impulse to
the development of historical demography, because he was able to
include in his own projects, both problems defined by various
protagonists as well as the opposing views of the
historians."
Correspondence: P.-A. Rosental, Institut
National d'Etudes Démographiques, 27 rue du Commandeur, 75675
Paris Cedex 14, France. Location: Princeton University Library
(SPR).
63:10585 Saito, Osamu. Historical
demography: achievements and prospects. Population Studies, Vol.
50, No. 3, Nov 1996. 537-53 pp. London, England. In Eng.
"Historical demography as a separate discipline came into
existence when family reconstruction was first developed for the
analysis of a pre-transition population. This paper assesses the
significant achievements made in this field of population studies since
then. Attention is also paid to equally significant findings obtained
from aggregative analysis based on back projection, and to a large body
of research results for the period of the demographic transition. In
the last part of the paper, new research directions are discussed. Data
issues as well as methodological ones are raised. Special attention is
given to newly emerging Asian historical demography where different
source materials require different methods and techniques, which in
turn are expected to broaden the scope of the so far disproportionately
fertility-oriented field. Finally, discussions are extended to
economic, cultural and institutional aspects of the subject, with a
plea not to isolate demographic analysis from other branches of
historical research."
Correspondence: O. Saito,
Hitotsubashi University, Institute of Economic Research, 2-1 Naka,
Kunitachi-city, Tokyo 186, Japan. Location: Princeton
University Library (SPR).
